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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Wilson offer as evidence of thinkers affected by the concept of natural rights?

2. What does natural selection provide for a species?

3. What is the problem with anthropology, in Edmund Wilson's estimation?

4. Where does postmodernism fail to accord with science, in Edmund Wilson's account?

5. How does the empiricist view ethical reasoning?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do patterns in mental development connect genes to culture?

2. What is volitional evolution, and what does Wilson say are its effects?

3. How does Wilson describe the universality of art?

4. What is the purpose of the social sciences, and how does Wilson distinguish the social sciences from the physical social sciences?

5. How do the senses function as epi-genetic rules?

6. What role does the incest taboo have in genetic and cultural development?

7. How does postmodern art resist consilience, in E.O. Wilson's account?

8. What are the two branches of anthropology Wilson describes, and what question does he say they both fail to answer?

9. What social science does Wilson credit with coming closest to consilience?

10. How does art look through the gene-culture evolution paradigm Wilson offers?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Wilson writes that economic models of culture can change variables, but keep the remainder--the unique thing that is the culture itself--constant. What is it about economic that Wilson says makes it better suited to our times than sociology and anthropology? What would superiority mean if Wilson were the dean of a university, with power to determine funding for departments?

Essay Topic 2

Wilson's book begins and ends with a call for better efficiency and use of knowledge in solving problems. To what extent is consilience really Wilson's response to the dangers of industrial modernism? Is consilience really about knowledge and disciplines, or is it about clearing the way for scientists to contribute their experience to solving problems?

Essay Topic 3

Is consilience a project for government planners or for university budgets? Is Wilson advocating a role for consilience in government or in education?

(see the answer keys)

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